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LOUISIANA BIGSHOT
by Julie Smith
Forge Books, August 2002
304 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0765300591


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

By night, Baroness de Pontalba is a glamorous poetess reading her poems at coffee shops and restaurants. By day she is Talba Wallis, private investigator for E. V. Anthony Investigations. Talba just became a full-fledged investigator for Eddie Valentinožs firm after being his apprentice for a year.

One day Talba hurt her back and went to see her „healerū and friend, Babalu Maya to get rid of the pain. Babalu told Talba some wonderful news; she just became engaged and will soon marry. Talba was just about to tell Babalu how happy she was for her when Babalu said that she thought her fiancČ was cheating. Talba agreed to investigate to find out the truth.

Babalu was right. Her was fiancČ cheating and Talba had to tell the bad news to her friend. The day after Talba tells Babalu, Babalu is found dead from an apparent drug overdose. The police said it was suicide and closed the case.

Babalužs fiancČ finds Talba and convinces her that he really did love Babalu and asks Talba to investigate Babalužs suicide because he thinks she was really murdered.

This case brings Talba into the small, racist city where Babalu was born. She has to figure out just why everyone in the town, including Babalužs own family, hated her and why they all seem to be covering up Babalužs murder.

The storyline in this second Talba Wallis series is good enough, I guess. It kept me reading the book and waiting for the answer to Babalužs death even though I wanted to put the novel down many times.

The problem with the book is with the emotional make-up of Talba Wallis. Shežs a young, Black woman and the author, Julie Smith, never lets us forget it. On almost every page Talba is telling us that she is black, that she doesnžt really like or trust white people, except for her boss, Eddie Valintino. The author has Talba use her race as an excuse for everything that happens to her, and it gets old real fast.

There were times that Talba found herself in trouble, and I was kind of hoping she wouldnžt be able to get out of it. Talba doesnžt like when people act as if they are above others; yet, Talba calls herself a Baroness and does her own share of looking down on people.

One of the many storylines of the novel has Talba finding her younger stepsister. Her sister works as a manicurist, is overweight, and doesnžt dress the way Talba thinks she should. Talba lets us know that she doesnžt care for much of anything about her sister because of those factors.

Talba doesnžt like for her sister-in-law, Michelle, because Talba thinks that she puts herself above the rest of Talbažs family. They only start getting along when Michelle gives birth to a little girl and names her after Talba.

The best character by far is Eddie Valentino, Talbažs boss. Hežs a no-nonsense Private Investigator who prefers to go out in the world to find the information he needs rather than to rely on computer searches. Eddie is quite a bit older than Talba and may not be in the best of health, but hežs very much in love with his wife and adores and is proud of his daughter. He also is a very nice and polite man who doesnžt like when people use bad language. Itžs Eddie that makes LOUISIANA BIGSHOT almost bearable.

The first book Talba appeared in was LOUISIANA HOTSHOT. I started to read it when it first was published, but even Eddiežs character couldnžt make me finish it. Talba is not a likeable character and is capable of ruining a pretty good mystery.

I just wish the author would tone Talbažs character down some. LOUISIANA BIGSHOT is not a bad book by itself, but itžs hard getting past Talba. Now, if Julie Smith Wrote a book with Eddie Valentino as the main character Ižd read that right away!

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, April 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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